Frozen Air Bubbles in Abraham Lake
(12 photo)

Abraham Lake is an artificial lake on North Saskatchewan River in western Alberta, Canada. The lake was created in 1972, with the construction of the Bighorn Dam, and named after Silas Abraham, an inhabitant of the Saskatchewan River valley in the nineteenth century.

Abraham Lake is home to a rare phenomenon where bubbles get frozen right underneath its surface. They're often referred to as ice bubbles or frozen bubbles. This has made the lake famous among photographers.

Photographer Fikret Onal explains the phenomenon: "The plants on the lake bed release methane gas and methane gets frozen once coming close enough to much colder lake surface and they keep stacking up below once the weather gets colder and colder during [the] winter season."

“Even though I've walked on a frozen lake before on every occasion, the frozen Abraham Lake made me feel completely uneasy since the lake was not covered with snow (it was too cold to snow, below -30 Celsius with wind chill). Even though the icy surface was around 8-9 inches thick, it still scared the hell out of me not only because of the fact that I can see all the cracks in all directions everywhere and to see the darkness of the lake bottom through the glassy surface, also the deep boomy, underwater and cracking sounds coming from the underneath of the lake surface…”